What the repeal of a key climate rule means for America

The Trump administration has dismantled the basis for all US climate regulations, in its most confrontational anti-environment move yet.

- By Dharna Noor

The 2009 endangerment finding determined that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare and should therefore be controlled by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). By revoking it last week, officials eliminated the legal foundation enabling the government to control planet-heating pollution.

The move prompted widespread condemnation from climate experts and advocates for environmental, public health and economic justice.

The repeal is part of Trump's sweeping assault on climate policy. Since returning to office last January, Trump's administration has moved aggressively to dismantle pollution rules and boost fossil fuels. That anti-environmental agenda, critics say, serves his fossil-fuel donors.

Where did the endangerment finding come from?

In 2007, the supreme court ruled in the lawsuit Massachusetts v EPA that the Clean Air Act gives the government authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles - something advocates and scientists had demanded for years.